Monday, June 25, 2012

Believing is easy. Believing is just being convinced that
something is true. And you can do that
without anyone knowing about it. It’s
the confessing that can be hard.

Because Satan and his allies
in positions of authority do not want to hear what we have to say, what the
Church has to say, what Christ has to say. Confession of Christ has resulted in the
shedding of blood of every martyr of every age.
Confession has placed men, women, and children into shackles and cells
and torture chambers right down to this very moment. Confession is what it means to “fight the
good fight of faith” as St. Paul exhorts us.
For once one has engaged the enemy, once one has “confessed the good
confession in the presence of many witnesses,” one is taking up the cross and
truly following our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself “witnessed the good
confession before Pontius Pilate.”

Christians of every time and
place are called upon to confess Christ and to openly and lovingly proclaim to
the world the reason for the hope that is in them, to confess before kings and
before paupers the good news of Jesus Christ, of His atoning death on the
cross, His freely offered sacrifice of His own body and blood for the
forgiveness of sins, and our own unworthy reception of this redemptive grace
through faith, by hearing the Word and partaking of the sacraments.

Sometimes this confession can
be made freely. Sometimes there is a
cost. While salvation is free, sometimes
the confession of the free grace costs confessors their very lives.

Our forbears in the age of
reformation knew this cost. They had seen
those who dared ask questions being tortured and burned at the stake. They followed the sad saga of the
excommunication of Doctor Luther, one of the Church’s greatest theologians, and
stubborn refusal of the Church’s pompous bureaucracy to submit to Holy
Scripture. Some of these confessors would
be burned at the stake or have their lands seized. At very least, their reputations would be
savaged, and they would be accused of being heretics.

But these brave men and
women, pastors and laypeople, redeemed sinners of many lands, Christians who
hungered for righteousness and thirsted for truth, took comfort in our Lord’s
encouragement, “Therefore do not fear them.
For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that
will not be known. ‘Whatever I tell you
in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the
housetops…. Whoever confesses Me before
men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.’”

The evangelical movement that
began in Germany – the churches, the pastors, the lay people, the university
professors, all Christians who looked to the Bible instead of bureaucracy, who
sought the Gospel and not superstitious trinkets – they were to have their
opportunity at Augsburg to “fight the good fight” and “confess the good
confession” before church and state, before nobles and peasants, before angels
and demons – on this very date 482 years ago.

In the very teeth of the
Roman Church and the Imperial State, these confessors, just as their Lord did before
Pilate, “witnessed the good confession.”

And like the Old Testament
exiles who returned home after decades in captivity, these confessors of
Augsburg once more “opened the book” of the Word of God, and “the people stood
up.” They heard about the good news of
our Lord’s death on the cross and rejected the theory of Purgatory. They heard the proclamation of grace and
rejected the mercenary trade in Masses and in relics. They heard the Word in its glory and they
rejected the self-proclaimed infallibility of church bureaucrats.

And the people were called to
“rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to
them.”

The people heard the
presentation of this good confession with clarity, that these reformers indeed
worshiped the Trinity and confessed original sin, the Son of God,
justification, the ministry, the new obedience, the Church (and what it is),
baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession, repentance, the use of sacraments,
order in the Church, the observance of ceremonies, civil government, Christ’s
return, the proper understanding of free will, the cause of sin, good works,
and the proper way to honor the saints.

They heard these 21 articles
of faith confessed with charity, in firmness and yet in love, with courage and
with faith. And they indeed confessed,
“Our churches do not dissent from any article of the faith held by the Church
catholic.”

And the people heard
explanations of certain practices of the ancient church that were restored:
both kinds in the sacrament, the marriage of priests, the proper understanding
of the Mass and its ceremonies, confession and absolution, the right way to
fast, a biblical view of monastic vows, and the proper exercise of authority in
the Church.

And this confession was
offered at this time and in this place for the sake of the Gospel, “so that it
would be understood that in doctrine and ceremonies, we have received nothing
contrary to Scripture or to the Church universal.”

Dear friends, this confession
is needed now more than ever. We live in
a postmodern age where those who are afraid to commit and afraid to offend
allow truth to be twisted and turned and led around like a pig with a ring in
its snout. But truth is objective, dear
brothers and sisters, and though we can (and do) have honest disagreements with
other Christians and even within our on communion, there is a basic confession
that we Lutherans have bound ourselves, our pastors, and our churches to.

Not only is there an
objective truth, but it is knowable as revealed in Scripture and confessed by
the Church Catholic. We confess the
faith of our fathers, of the apostles, of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Bible always trumps the bureaucrat, the
Gospel always outshines trinkets, and we are bidden always to confess Him “who
is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who
alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen
or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”

In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Just as every Lord’s Day is a
mini-Easter, every Lord’s day is also a mini-Christmas. Indeed, as we Lutherans confess in the
Apology of our Augsburg Confession:

“We do not abolish the Mass,
but religiously keep and defend it.
Masses are celebrated among us every Lord’s Day and on the other
festivals. The Sacrament is offered to
those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved.”

And so even in the middle of
summer we are not out of line to wish one another a Merry Christ’s Mass. For this holy day and holy sacrament that we
celebrate today is the celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of Mary, true
God and true Man, come to us in Word and Sacrament, in body and blood, in bread
and wine.

Dear friends, what a treasure
we have! What a privilege to be
here! What a glorious thing we see with
our eyes, hear with our ears, and take into our bodies: the Word of the Lord,
the body and blood of Christ – for us men and for our salvation!

Indeed, today is yet another
celebration of Christmas, of the incarnation of our Lord, of the fulfillment of
the hope and yearning of the elderly Zacharias and his formerly barren wife Elizabeth,
of the answer to prayers, of the peace and mercy and redemption and love of God
for His people, of the fulfillment of the passing millennia as generations
awaited the fulfillment of the promise, the victory over the devil, the
restoration of life to a people dead in their trespasses, and the vindication
of all creation from the devastation of sin.

With the coming of the Lord’s
holy cousin John, the man who is the greatest of those born of woman and yet
the least in the kingdom, the voice crying in the wilderness prophesied by
Isaiah seven centuries before, he who would close out the Old Testament by
announcing the coming of Him whose blood is the New Testament – we see
everything changing.

The grip of Satan is loosed
as the devil is being mortally wounded by our Lord – who was Himself mortally
wounded for us and in our place. The
consequences of sin, the debt we can never pay, the damage we can never undo –
is paid in full and creation is repaired to its former glory by Him who died
and rose again. The finality of death –
the most cruel and final of all enemies of man and beast alike – has been
rendered temporary, as the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the first-fruits of the
resurrection promised and given to us as a free gift of God’s gracious mercy.

For the Lord laid a burden
upon St. John: the vocation of being the forerunner, the herald, the preacher
of repentance, and the baptizer of our blessed Lord. It is a burden that St. John the Baptist
would carry faithfully unto death – in spite of his doubts, in spite of his
perceived failure, in spite of his shameful execution. John surrendered his head as a martyr’s
testimony to the Head of the Church, the Sacred Head now Wounded, the one who
has come to crush the vile serpent’s head, so that we might be members of His
body, the Church, the redeemed bride, sinners converted into saints – by the
power of the same Word preached by John, his very cousin in the flesh, the Word
Made Flesh, the one who comes to us today, dear brothers and sisters.

We sing with Zecharias and
with Christians of every age, filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy
Scriptures: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed
His people.”

He has visited us, dear
friends. He does not leave us to fend
for ourselves. But He visits us in our
sinful world in His sinless flesh. He
visits, literally “oversees” or “bishops” us as the Good Shepherd of our souls,
leading us safely away from predators and joyfully to the still baptismal
waters and green pastures of eternal life.
He redeems us, dying for us that we might live. Purchasing us from the bondage of sin – “not
with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent
suffering and death.”

“And (He) has raised up for us,”
continues St. Zacharias, “a horn of salvation for us in the house of His
servant David. As He spoke by the mouth
of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be
saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.”

Dear friends, we have all this
– right here and right now! We have
heard the Lord speak to us through His appointed minister! Our sins have been forgiven! We have heard the good news placed into our
ears through the reading of the Lord’s most precious and most holy Word! And, dear brothers and sisters, we are about
to partake of the very body and blood of our dear Lord, the true fountain of
youth, the antidote to death, the medicine of immortality, the physical
communion between us poor miserable, but forgiven sinners, and our almighty and
infinite, but merciful and present, God.

“How awesome is this
place! This is none other than the house
of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

For John the Baptist came in
his own flesh to proclaim the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. He has come into time and space, to a
specific place, and He continues to seek us out where we may be found, dear
friends. He meets us here, in the house
of God and at the gate of heaven. He
comes here and now to be with us, to save us, to redeem us, to forgive us, and
to give us everlasting life. This is
what John proclaimed, this is what we proclaim, and this is what the Church
will proclaim until the Lord’s return.

For the Lord came into time
and space “to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His
holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham.”

What a glorious thing, dear
friends, that we are privileged to hear this anew, to yet again commune with
our Lord, the same Lord born of Mary and baptized by John, the same Lord who
died in His body and blood on the cross and who rose in His body and blood from
the empty tomb. This is what we receive
in this Word and Sacrament: “To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand
of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our life.”

Dear friends, we have been
delivered from our enemies: those in this world who seek our pain and
destruction, as well as those in realms unseen that wage relentless war to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We shall serve the Lord without fear, without
the fear of our sins, without fear of rejection, without fear that we must rely
on our own goodness to save us. For we
have been granted “holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
life” – for we too have heard St. John’s sermon: “repent!” and we have been
given the gift of the baptizer, being baptized into Christ’s death, even as we
have been given this gift for “all the days of our life.”

And, dear brothers and
sisters, with our enemies defeated, our sins atoned for, our death undone, and
our sinful and broken world renewed and restored, the promise that this is for “all
the days of our life” takes on new meaning.
It means without sin, without sorrow, without regret, without pain, and
without death – and without end!

This, dear friends, is why
John was born: “to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission
of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring
from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the
shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

We praise You for the Baptist,

Forerunner of the Word,

Our true Elijah making

A highway for the Lord.

The last and greatest prophet,

He saw the dawning ray

Of light that grows in splendor

Until the perfect day.

Amen.

In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Our spiritual father St. John
the Apostle says to us: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but
in deed and in truth.”

For he knows how we are.

We are talkers, not
doers. We are like the man who says:
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Rather than being rewarded by Jesus for
saying something profound and pious, our Lord Jesus tells a parable to convict
him of his sins and call him to repentance.
For in this story, everyone has an excuse.

This is because we are
talkers and not doers.

We are like St. Peter who
swears that even if everyone else falls away, he won’t. Instead, he denied the Lord three times. It’s easier to make promises than to keep
them. It’s easier to talk about
Christianity than to be a Christian.
It’s easier to pay lip service to “spirituality” than to abide by the
teachings of Christ’s holy religion.

In other words, we talk the
talk, but do not walk the walk.

But, dear friends, the Lord
is calling on us to be honest with ourselves.
He invites us: “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of
insight.” For “the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom.”

The first thing every
Lutheran child memorizes from the catechism is the first commandment: “You
shall have no other gods. What does this
mean? We should fear, love, and trust in
God above all things.” But who wants a
God that is feared?

And yet, the Word of the Lord
is clear: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

But do we really fear the
Lord? Are we any different than the
characters of our Lord’s parable? “Come,
for everything is now ready,” He invites us.
The bread and wine are on the altar.
Everything is now ready. “The
feast is ready, come to the feast.” Sins
are forgiven in this place. The Word of
God is proclaimed in this place. The
Lord is miraculously present in the Holy Sacrament in this place. “Come, for everything is now ready,” He says
to us with great joy and excitement.

But where is everyone?

Jesus is here. What could be more important than that?

“The first says to him, ‘I
have bought a field, and I must go out and see it.” Someone else says: “I have bought five yoke
of oxen, and I must go to examine them.”
Still another says: “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot
come.”

There is always an
excuse. There is always something more
important. There is always a good reason
to do something else, go somewhere else, pay attention to someone else. There is TV to be watched, parties to attend,
chores to be done, places to go, things to do, people to see. There are shows and sports and things to do
at work. And even when there isn’t,
there is the morning paper and the chance to sleep in.

“So the servant came and
reported these things to his master.
Then the master of the house became angry.” He uninvited those with excuses, he sought
others who would recognize and appreciate the invitation. “Bring in the poor and crippled and blind and
lame,” he orders. And he adds: “None of
those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.”

This is a hard word the Lord
gives us today, dear friends. But thanks
be to God our Father that He loves us enough to warn us, to call us to repent,
to draw us into Himself, to His Son who did walk the walk of the road to
Calvary, who made no excuses, but who loves us in deed and in truth. Thanks be to God that He sends us His Spirit,
to convict us, call us, and draw us to Himself.

The Lord calls us to put away
our excuses! The Lord calls us to fear,
love, and trust in Him above all things!
The Lord calls us to “eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have
mixed.” The Lord calls us to walk the
walk and to truly know love. For “by
this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brothers.”

He issues the invitation
anew: “Come, for everything is now ready!”
He has gone out into the “highways and hedges” and He compels us – not
with force, but with love. He draws us
in by grace! He beckons us with His
Word: the Word of forgiveness, life, and salvation. He desires that His house should be filled,
filled with the “poor and crippled and blind and lame.” Filled with “poor miserable sinners.” Filled with people who stop making excuses
because there is no excuse for our sinfulness.
Filled with forgiven sinners who accept reproof in love and who respond
to the call to repent with thanksgiving and not with scoffing.

Let us turn aside from our
excuses and let us confess our lukewarm hearts and repent of our fair-weather
faith. Let us joyfully partake of the
feast. Let us hear the Word of the Lord
and not allow it to become just one more text or e-mail in the clutter. Let us pray to the Lord and not just go
through the motions. Let us partake of
the Most Holy Sacrament, knowing and confessing that the Lord is physically and
miraculously present with us, for us, even as He has died in our place and
leads us into perfect love. Let us
receive the free and full gift of forgiveness, offered in love, and received in
love – the pure love of God that abides in us though we most certainly do not
deserve it.

“Little children, let us not
love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Amen!

on
the sickness of sinto the next - and d w liars and sons of the devil, tament, a
bloodye people on

In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Our family's days as a uni-vehicular family (which has been the case since shortly after Hurricane Katrina) are now over!

I located a nice 2001 Honda Rebel (appropriately purchased from Mississippi) with low miles and in almost new condition for a nice price. It is a small (and I mean small) motorcycle - 234 cc with the seat 26 inches off the ground. It's quite a different ride than my old Honda 900 or my Suzuki 850 that I was riding 20 years ago. But it gets about 70 miles per gallon in a two and a half gallon tank.

The bike runs very well, can get up over 70 mph - though that is about the extent of it. This is fine for the commuting that I need to do. We have a longer riding season in New Orleans than when I was riding in Ohio (having to wear a snow-suit part of the year).

No more daily one-person minivan commute - at least when the weather cooperates.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Thank you to Jeff Schwarz and Rev. Todd Wilkin for having me on today on the world's greatest Lutheran radio program - Issues, Etc. You can listen here for today's half hour interview about my article in the latest Gottesdienst called "The Problem with Protestantism."

I've been on Issues, Etc. three times. You can search the archives of all of the shows since it went online here. There is a little something for everyone here - for Lutherans and non-Lutherans alike!

And if you can't get the Issues, Etc. theme song out of your head, here is the video!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The above video of Peter Schiff's recent testimony before congress reminds me a bit of this:

The reaction of congress to Schiff reminds me more of this...

:

not to mention this...

Observing congress is like seeing a video of a toddler who has grabbed the car keys, started the engine, and is driving an automobile to a certain wreck. America's Funniest Videos it isn't.

I especially find the one congressman's intended condescending remark about "an Ayn Rand novel" to be especially illustrative - as he doesn't even know how to pronounce "Ayn Rand." If they don't even read their own bills, maybe it's unreasonable to expect anything more than The Cat And The Hat out of these guys. One of the valid criticisms of Ayn Rand is her one-dimensional characters that are just too cut-and-dried. The problem is, when I watch this video, I see members of congress just as economically clueless and full of themselves as any bloodless villain in an Ayn Rand story.

Anyway, below is Peter Schiff's announcement of this video including a few key points marked and linked. It is worth clicking on his excerpts.

Dear Friends,

On Friday, I sent you a link to the video of my June 7th Congressional testimony regarding the Federal Housing Authority loan policy. Given that the exchanges I had with the Congressmen so clearly illuminate the flawed legislative process and the ignorance that many have about the workings of the free market, I wanted to take this opportunity to resend this important video.

If you share my opinion on economic issues, please help me make this video go viral. For those of you who haven't had the chance to watch the full 33 minutes, I have compiled a guide to the juiciest highlights below.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II unsuccessfully tries to 'nail' me. Instead, a spirited discussion ensues in which I remind the congressman of the moral hazard and economic costs of government subsidies.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Here is an interesting article from CNBC (June 5) that demonstrates the power of austerity, savings, and investment instead of stimulus, debt, and consumerism. Could we swallow such a bitter pill here in America? Can we afford not to? It will be interesting to see what becomes of Estonia - especially being part of the Eurozone.

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Why Father Hollywood?

While serving in a previous ministerial call, I had to moonlight at the local Hollywood Video to pay for health insurance for the family. It took one of my coworkers a couple weeks before she stopped addressing me as "Father" and started using my first name.
It was a fun job. My co-workers were the best. I got free rentals too. You can click here to see a picture. Now you know the rest of the story...